Prologue

The air hung thick around him, sour and suffocating to his tormented body. A disgusting bile filled his mouth and choked his lungs, his mind screaming out without uttering a word.

He open his eyes weakly, praying with some futile hope he would be home again. Warm and safe in his own room instead of cold and dying amongst the smell of decaying flesh that burned his nostrils with every shuddered breath.

He almost laughed, staring up at the black storm clouds overhead. Soon the rain would come, and wash away all the death. It would wash away his pain, his suffering, his own last pathetic shreds of life. Everything.

He grinned, the blood that was slowly filling his mouth trickled outward like water against a breaking dam. Maybe he couldn’t wait until then, maybe he could just give in now. Just close his eyes, and never reopen them. To sleep forever and turn away from the cold reality that faced him. How lovely that would be. He thought. His vision blurred again and his thoughts became hazy and jumbled within his mind, merging together into a meaningless haze.

He turned his head slightly, not knowing quite why. The muscles in his neck ached with protest, but still he did so. Focusing his eyes once more, the sight that met them sent him reeling backwards in shock and horror. His body, racked with pain, seemed to scream out in anguish as he stumbled backwards against a rotting tree trunk. The bleeding was probably internal, he realized.

A mangled face, if that was what it once had been, stared back at him. He tried to scream, or to cry out, but the words would not come. Blood and twisted flesh littered the ground next to him. It seemed that this was not the only one to be torn to shreds. Perhaps he had been to delirious to notice before. He leaned forward nervously, his breathing seemed loud amongst the silence that surrounded the carnage around him.

He reached outward and touched the face meekly, realizing his own arm was in worse condition than it felt. The bone lie exposed and blood covered the torn sleeve of his uniform. The crimson color slowly spreading as the plasma continued to gush out in a painfully steady rhythm. Though he took little notice in the gaping wound, a child-like intrigue driving his hand closer. Though he himself was not certain why.

He winced as his hand met the cadaver’s face, the mangled skin of the corpse felt hot even through his thick gloves. In a nervous twitch, his fingers shifted upward. The eyeball of the mutilated face lolled out in the disturbance, the thin membrane of flesh clinging on to it snapped, and the eye fell. It bounced away almost comically, like some child’s toy. He barely flinched at the sight, not bothering to watch it roll off. He had seen enough of the horrific carnage, what he saw then seemed to be nothing significant. All the more reason to give in now…just die and get it over with! A voice edged him on eagerly, yet he knew it was his own.

He kept his vision fixed downwards, watching his own blood slowly drip onto the ground below as the seconds passed.

He simply stared at the ground, letting the dull wind howl in his ears like the wails of a thousand lost souls. He grinned again, the delirium taking hold of his mind once more as though by some tight grip of a hand. Maybe these are the cries of those around me… He laughed within his head. Maybe I’ll join them soon…

A sickening noise met his ears suddenly. He jerked his head sideways on impulse to face it’s source. Gritting his teeth instantly, he wondered if he could do anything without causing pain to ricochet through his own body.

It was Malise, the Lieutenant Commander assigned to lead the ill fated mission. Though the commander seemed to take little notice of the sight that surrounded him, staring down upon him like some arch angel. Malise stood not far above him, leaning against a huge boulder casually, totally disregarding the bodies strewn throughout the rocky clearing. His face was masked in the shadows of the trees that loomed above. The wind’s howling seemed to pick up as he stood there, announcing his arrival in a grim, voiceless wail.

“Didn’t your mama ever tell ya not to play with corpses, kid?” He asked, almost laughing as he spoke.

The young soldier stared at him in disbelief…of all the times to joke. It sickened him even more to see the Commander looming over him, still with the same smug attitude even after the chaos that had torn through the valley just hours earlier. Didn’t he care about the gore surrounding him like some sea of flesh? The thought merely sickened him even more. He took a deep breath, now was not the time to loose his temper. Though it wasn’t as if he himself was in any condition to act. His own wounds were far to severe, a fact he had overlooked in his furor.

“And where were you?” He hissed in annoyance. Though his voice was shaken and weak, like a young battered child to fearful to speak. Malise grinned again, obviously knowing that. Only his wry smile was visible to the soldier, the rest of his face masked ominously by the shadows looming over head.

That the commander apparently had little more than a few scratches about his body. Still in the same condition as when they had left just hours before. That is, if not for the dirt that clung tightly to the cloth.

“You should talk, Ferrin.” Malise retorted coldly, jumping down from the rocky outcroppings he had stood upon. Ferrin immediately realized that the commander hadn’t been as lucky as he had taken. Deep gashes were down his face, his right eye was a milky white, left blinded by the gouging inflicted upon it. The veins had been tore within the cornea, leaving blood to drip out in silken streams of blood.

“So, you don’t think I care, do you boy?” Malise hissed.

Ferrin had no idea how to reply, suspecting the commander was playing yet another mind game with him.

“Well then,” said Malise. “Care to take a guess how many survivors we have in our little band?” “How should I know…?!” Ferrin retorted, turning his gaze to stare ruefully up at Malise. “It’s hard to take count when you’re waiting to die.”

Malise laughed, it was an odd and slightly shaken sound compared to how he had usually sounded. It was just like him, to joke and laugh in the midst of such a disaster, all just so he could protect his tough, cold nature. To let someone see him cry would most likely crush his gigantic ego.

The commander hopped down from his perch upon the rocks to where he loomed directly over Ferrin menacingly. His wry smiled wavered for a moment, letting a look of sheer terror and despair to shine through. Ferrin spoke nothing of this, to weakened from his loss of blood to care any more. Quickly forcing himself to regain his composure, Malise continued on.

“There’s…. There’s six, including you and I.”

Ferrin shot up to his feet at that, ignoring the pain that instantly ripped through his body. He stared Malise straight in his good eye. Fighting back the tears that threatened to overcome him, Ferrin was tempted to take his frustration out on Malise. “Five….” He repeated, not believing the commander’s words.

“Five men…..out of the entire team!?”

Malise shrugged nonchalantly at his outburst. “Well, I’d say most of em are laying around here,” He motioned his hands broadly, indicating the corpses that strewn the valley. “Or at least pieces of them are…”

Ferrin jerked Malise forward weakly by the collar of his uniform to comply, forcing himself to try and keep a tight grip. “Bastard!!” He shrieked, letting his rage go despite himself. “You just left us all to die!!”

“I did no such thing!” Malise retorted sharply, his brow furrowed downward in annoyance. Still he stared at him with an icy gaze. Malise scoffed loudly, pulled away from Ferrin’s grip in a sudden rough movement. The unexpected jerk sent the outraged yet broken soldier toppling back down to the ground below. He sneered, and shook his head in disgust.

Malise slowly turned his gaze back upon young Ferrin, he didn’t know whether to be distraught or irked.

“I tried to warn you! I tried to tell you in was idiotic to investigate such a place! If you hadn’t-“

“If we hadn’t, we would have still ended up in the same way! Maybe then even less would have survived!”

Ferrin forced himself back up to his knees, but that was the most he could manage to do. Despite the wounded soldier’s efforts, Malise was not about to admit he had been wrong.

“You fool! If you had just carried out our orders like we should have, we wouldn’t have to deal with those creatures in the first place!!”

“You think so?!” Ferrin screamed furiously. “Taynt hacked the mission files from the computers in that damned lab! We saw it all!! This was a suicide mission from the very beginning!!” He stood up painfully, grabbing Malise weakly by the shoulders as before. This times he leaned into the commander, desperately clinging for support than for hold.

“The Shinra sent us here just to die!! Don’t you see?! We’re nothing to them! Just a few casualties!”

Ferrin could feel the hot tears of bitterness trickle down his face as he yelled, his enraged words echoed loudly against the walls of the bleak cliffs the towered above them.

Malise was hardly scathed by what Ferrin said. He scowled, as though disappointed, and turned his back. “Humph….Didn’t you know that in the first place?” He sighed. He gestured his hand outward, motioning over to the remains that littered the ground. “You of all people should have known that.”

“WHAT!?”

“That’s all we soldiers are to them, mindless numbers and statistics in their petty history records. That’s how it is, and that’s all we’ll ever be to them.” Malise’s tone was low and flat as he spoke. For even he knew this, no matter how much he tried to deny it.

Malise turned his back roughly, taking a few steps away as he did. “I’m going to see if I can get some help.” He announced listlessly, knowing there was no help for many of them at that point. “W-what?” Ferrin gasped. “But, you’ll never make it. What if those things are still out there?”

Malise ignored his pleas and continued to walk further away. “I know that.” He replied firmly. “But I’m going.”

“Wait!” Ferrin cried, forcing him self to drag forward. “What about me? Or the others?” The question merely caused the commander to pause for a moment.

“See if you can rally up any more survivors.” Ferrin grimaced, still Malise was barking out orders. “But when will you be back?”

“I don’t know.”

And without another word, the commander walked off down the path. As he disappeared from sight, Ferrin wondered what he actually planned to do. Because as long as he had waited, he never saw the commander’s return to that bloodied clearing. And for this, Ferrin was shown suffering far greater than what the battle before had saw to him. He lie on the ground piteously hoping he could just die, that the pain would end. Yet it didn’t.

His eyes lay fixed wide open, the pain too real. Something forced him to stay alive, for a reason that was beyond anything he knew. The clouds above rumbled and bleached out with torrid showers of rain, slowly washing the blood stained soil away in a rive of blood and death.

And his eyes stayed open, even as the rain beat down relentless. Even as the soft screams for death, salvation, and love ones faded away to silence once more.

As his own mind slowly became clouded and blank, as his own body screamed out to be given death and end the pain, his eyes stayed open.

And finally, after all those hours of suffering; it wasn’t the commander that came to oversee what was left of the ill fated group, but a small party of scientists and guards. Leading the small search party, was Professor Hojo himself…..

This series is by Rebecca McKenzie. She has an ongoing Final Fantasy series on my page that I hope will be ongoing. She may have some Parasite Eve fics later on. Email her and let her know what you think!